


Strings and Springs

by FictionGirl11



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: A wild Mike has appeared!, Being Rewritten, Custom Designs, F/M, FNAF 3 - Freeform, Fem!Marionette, Friendship, Mentions of Death, More surprises in the future, My own take on their personalities, Not Canon Timeline, Other fandom refrences, Slow Burn, Trust Issues, past trama, trust building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2019-11-27 12:50:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18194816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionGirl11/pseuds/FictionGirl11
Summary: When Fazbear's Fright burns to the ground, releasing the final two trapped souls, there are two left who have yet to move on from the past. Marionette and Springtrap learn to overcome their insecurities, fears, and mistakes together with some hijinks and shenanigans thrown in the mix.





	1. Sparks of Change

**Author's Note:**

> An attempt to get back into writing by letting out an idea that's been swimming around in my brain for a while now. I'll see where it goes and if anyone has suggestions feel free to throw them out and I'll see what I can do.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Beginning.  
> Try numero dos!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s 11:30 where I am so technically it’s still on time. I’d like to thank the meowvolous SpaceCat010 over on FFN for their help in beating this chapter. Enjoy!

 'This place sure has changed.' Honestly, he wasn't even sure how long had passed in that cold, damp, forsaken back room where he'd finally made his choice. He still didn't regret that choice, at least not really. He did, however, regret not making it sooner. If he had, he most likely wouldn't be being forcefully dragged from room to room in this stupid mockery of his miserable past. Maybe it was poetic how everything seemed to have come full circle, but that was him just trying to make light of his conditions.

'The first one to rise, the last one to fall.'

There was a lull in the noises that now consumed his world as he had a chance to get his bearings. Spring Bonnie was currently in one of the long hallways that ran from north to south. Seeing as the only doors were on the east side he could safely assume he was just outside of her hallway.

'Fudgesickles,' he thought angrily to himself. With this guard's insistence upon keeping him in the end hallway (which while a very smart decision on their part, was highly irritating and obnoxious on his). It was only a matter of time before- "Hello!" He heard from no particular place. The sound of the young boy's voice echoed throughout the long hallway until it slowly died out, leaving him in silence once again.

Welp, into hallway 7 he went. The little paper dolls hanging on the ceiling and the presents stacked in the corner would be cheerful, were it not for the partially lit head of one of his old friends on the floor just beyond them. That was also excluding the mildewed looking walls and dim lighting. He couldn't see her, but that was no surprise. She'd likely either hid or vacated the room altogether when she heard the sound cue.

It'd only been a few days since he'd been found and stuck in this place, but Afton was taking full advantage of the fact there was a guard to do… whatever he thought they were doing; he had no clue. Spring wasn't entirely sure, but he was probably too crazy to make real sense of it. It had been a while, but he was gaining power again since Spring had been moving around; lest we forget his sudden murderous motivation. Speak of the devil and he shall come.

Spring began to feel the pressure of Afton's influence in the back of his mind. Seeing as how they were so far from the guard still, Spring chose to save his energy for if they got closer. Receding back to his sort of 'safe spot' within his programming, he sat back to watch as the static got louder and louder.

Ş̴̠͚͕͛̔͝o̵̡̬̼͉̓ú̸̮̯̏͋̒L̴̡͚̪̝̑s̸̡̱̩̓,̴̩̬̉C̷͇͙̯͋ȓ̷̝̱͇̈́̅͒E̶̻̜̘̐A̴̢̝̬̋t̴̮̎͝ͅi̶̡̮͐͆̆̈́ȏ̸͙̟̯̬͌͐N̶̠̱͌̓̏,̴̔͋̍͜ ̴̗̯̃̓L̴͕̳̖̹̾ì̸̪͑F̸̦͙͝e̶͙̍̎̓̊,̵͙̿̊ ̸͖̬̮͗̕Ḑ̵̨͍̯̽E̴̛̗͒̓͠a̴̢͖̫͒̒̓ͅẗ̸̟́͒H̵̨̟̠̘̍͝,̸͇̑ ̸͍̦̲͒̒̍P̴͉̥̈̑̒i̴̥̞͍̙͗̂e̷̹̘̘͉̕C̵̫̤̩͆̿̂e̷̜̝̼̒̃̐͝s̸̗̝͋̀͠͝,̶̠̖̊ ̸̠̦̄̒͝P̴̞̟̻̤͆͋͐a̷̩̓̀̾͌ͅṛ̷̩͍̳̉̊Ṱ̸̆ş̷̣͍͋̉,̴̧͖̘̆͜ ̴̝̩͖͚̈͐͠l̸̢̺̠̂̽͘͝i̷̯̙͐̀̒̉F̶̟̑́͜͠͝e̸̜̮̾̇͌,̴̢̠͈͉̇̔̇ ̴̪̺͕̹͂c̴̜̹̒̀̕R̷̛̟̻̖ͅe̸̥͕̅̃̏̃ä̷͕̯́́͘T̸͕̉Ì̸̟̤̩̭̔͘o̷̧̿̃̆͝N̵͔̓

* * *

 

She had prepared everything. She'd gotten the balloons, the cake, the cupcakes, and gave her deepest apologies to everyone who deserved them. All that was left was to figure out what to do with this indigo-colored, malformed amalgamation that was representative of all the souls they'd wrongfully killed and lives they'd broken. Such fun.

She'd been in the suffocating darkness of the soulscape for who knows how long just trying to get this last piece of the puzzle before she could finally set everything right. It was endlessly frustrating. Marionette looked around the 2-Dimensional room for clues as to what on earth she was supposed to have the bunny do and noticed that the bunny was looking down, not like Goldie who was looking down at the children but straight through the floor of the stage. She willed him down, and after a few glitchy seconds, he plummeted into the very first "mini-game" she'd completed.

'Now what?' Looking around again, she noticed Balloon Boy's eyes were pointed to the left of the box, so left she went. She fell into a dark abyss for a short while until she saw a child, just sitting there crying. From what she could remember, this was Jonathan, the child who had possessed Bonnie. Despite the bunny's somewhat disturbing appearance, the giving of cake brightened his mood, and Marionette found herself pulled back into the physical realm, back in room 8.

She could feel the child's presence again, but Charlie was strangely quiet. A gentle nudge prompted Marionette to get to the final piece of her convoluted plan to free the souls of the children. Gliding quickly through the attraction, and no doubt startling the guard if he happened to see her, she came across an old picture of herself giving a cake to a small child. Steeling herself, she reached out. Her black, slender fingers brushed gently against the withered and torn paper as the 6 AM chime rang.

* * *

 

Spring shuddered as the 6 AM bells sounded out and he regained full control over his body. The witching hours where Afton could control him had ended. Having seen Marionette streak through room five like a bullet only a minute ago, he decided to go see what she was up to, not that she'd stick around when she noticed him coming. And she would notice him coming. In his decaying and dilapidated state, he wasn't exactly stealthy. Even if he were, there wasn't much that escaped Mari's notice, especially after '75.

It was admittedly lonely in the soon to be abandoned attraction. It was far too quiet and reminded him far too much of that lonely back room in the restaurant, with the faint sounds of life that managed to drift through the ventilation system...

...until they abruptly stopped one day..

He missed performing and being around people. Mostly though, he missed his friends. He hadn't seen Goldie since they were retired, and Spring was sealed in that horrible room, and Mari...well, they weren't friends anymore. He had screwed that relationship up a long time ago.

He missed messing with Goldie with her and all the japes they'd pulled on the staff when things were better and no one was dead. He really should've listened to her all those years ago, he could've avoided this whole mess. Entering the room she had fled into, he saw no sign of her.

'Maybe she'd gone to the guard room?'

Turning around he headed, off to the office. He looked through the glass, and still saw no sign of the puppet. 'Hmm. Where would she have gone in such a rush?' The guard was gone, which was normal for this time, what was unusual was the extra haze in the air. Did they decide to install a smoke machine? But wasn't smoke from smoke machines white? Then it hit him.

This was no fake smoke, this was fire. Just as the realization hit him, he saw the orange flames begin to lick up from beneath the desk.

'OH SUGAR-HONEY-ICE-TEA!'

Rushing into the office, he saw that the bobbleheads that were usually on the desk, as well as the guard uniform, had been used for kindling. Spring could only watch in horror as the ventilation alarm went off and his servos froze up from the noise emanating from just above his head. The red lights began blaring, sending him into further despair.

Spring hated the color red. Red meant blood, like the blood from Afton's crimes, cruelly ending the lives of too many children too early. Blood like the from the night guards, many of which shouldn't have died in the first place. But right now, red meant fire. Fire like the inferno that was about to consume him.

The fire lit the thin paper covering the desk, which quickly erupted. Mustering up every ounce of strength he had, Spring slowly limped his way out of the office. Just as the fire made its way to the trashcan, the inferno tripped the building's fire alarm, freeing him from being drawn to one specific source. The idiots that built the place hadn't thrown in a sprinkler system, nor did they put in any fire extinguishers. Humans sure were dumb sometimes. Just then, it hit him that there was still an unaccounted being somewhere in the building.

"Marionette! Mari! Where a-a-are yo-" His voice box shorted out before he could finish his warning. Mari was smart, surely she'd know what the fire alarm meant and would… what? What could they do? Leave? He knew Mari could go wherever she pleased but he'd tried before, they'd hooked him up to some invisible red barrier so that he couldn't wander out, which meant he was essentially stuck.

'Think, think, think, where was the least flammable place in this building… the metal vents!'

Turning around, he made his way into the vent that went from cam 7 to the room just outside the office. Wedging himself halfway between the two rooms, he stayed there and waited. Within minutes he could hear the crackling of the flames, and the metal vents around him began to heat up.

'Come on Spring,' he frantically thought to himself. 'think of it as a warm indoor heater on a cold winter night.'

Thick black smoke began to pour in and fill the air in the cramped vent. Spring began to crawl towards the opening.

'No! I... won't... die... here...!'

The last thing he remembered before his systems shut down from overheating was the faint sound of Afton yelling something.

____

* * *

~~~~

 

The children's souls were free! At last, Marionette had given them their happiest day. After all the mistakes and pain they'd been forced through while being tied to this mortal coil through her own misinformed attempts to help them, they were finally free to move on; no strings attached.

Smiling to herself as she emerged from the dreamlike state she was in, a tired Marionette was confronted by a scene that was the exact opposite of happy, or even positive period. Her beloved, well, not despised, hallway was in flames. The cute paper people holding hands were burning, and Marionette could barely see through the black smoke that was swirling with ash and embers.

Quickly looking around, Marionette knew her only available exit was into the room with cameras 9 and 10, which looked promising as there was an exit just through the room. Picking her way carefully, yet swiftly over the flaming debris, she made it to the doorway before there was a horrific cracking noise from above her. She refused to look up and simply tried to move even quicker through the fiery wreckage. She was only a few feet away from freedom when the roof collapsed, burying her slim black and white form beneath it.

'Spring Bonnie... I know you're in here somewhere...'

It was unbearably hot, and she was pretty sure her internal music box was now damaged, given the pain she felt in her chest. She had no idea how her endoskeleton was fairing, so she simply curled into the smallest ball she could manage with the heavy ceiling pinning her to the ground. She cursed her small stature and flimsier build, any other full-sized animatronic would have few problems dragging themselves out. All she could do was close her eyes and wait as the fire ran its course, and hope that she didn't go with it.

'I’m sorry I couldn’t save you too.'


	2. From the Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up and discovering the damage, amongst other things.

[WARNING: CPU Temperature Threshold Exceeded!]

[Attempting safe boot...]

 

As Spring's processor slowly came back online, the first thing he noticed was that he was uncomfortably warm. That was a first. Usually, he was pretty cold being made of metal and all. That is, aside from his chest and after he'd been moving and active for a while. After his blurry vision had mostly cleared, it hit him why he was so warm.

_'The fire,'_ He thought with a shudder.

Scanning around to survey the damage, he discovered that his hiding spot within the vent was still mostly intact, although sagging a bit and looking for the most part melted. Bringing his hands in front of his face he could see that his fur was only a tad singed in the thinner places. The rust and holes were normal (at least for what he'd been through), if a bit worse than the last time he'd checked. No surprise there.

_'I hope the rest of me ended up this intact.'_

Deciding that he'd be able to better determine the total damage done was by getting out of the vent, he began dragging himself to the exit. Little bits of ash were still swirling around in the air, so it probably hadn't been that long since he shut down. The only reason his processor was working now was that his body had cooled down just enough to work again. He couldn't risk overheating again, as he might not come back a second so soon. Spring wearily dragged himself out of the vent and into room 8, which was significantly cooler than the metal vent.

 

 Maybe it was because the wood and drywall conducted less heat, or maybe it was the large, gaping hole in the ceiling. Deciding that the room wasn't about to collapse on him, he did a quick check of himself. Everything seemed to be only slightly singed but otherwise seemed alright. In fact, crawling through the vent had seemed easier than usual and in fact, he felt significantly lighter than normal. Looking closer at himself, he soon realized why.

_'Afton's corpse is gone!'_

Holding perfectly still for a moment to relish in the feeling of his endoskeleton being uninhibited at last, he also realized that he could no longer feel the vengeful ghost hanging around anymore. Not even in the back of his mind could he feel the man's angry presence.

_'I'm free...'_

His growing elation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of distant sirens and pops of the embers around him.

_'Oh yeah, humans don't like fire either. I should probably leave unless I want to get sent to a scrapyard... or worse.'_ Luckily enough, the exit was just down the hallway. Picking his way through the rubble, he was making steady progress towards the door when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Stripes, specifically a black and white striped appendage.

 

"Marionette...?" He called out.

 

No response.

 

Quickly scrambling over to her, he discovered that only the back end of the puppet had been spared from being crushed. Fear and panic swept over him.

_'Is she alright? Is she alive?!'_

 Bracing himself on the floor, he heaved up the section of roof that had fallen on Marionette and supported it on one shoulder. While the large chunk of the building's rof was supported on his broad shoulder, he grabbed the end of her closest leg and managed to drag her out from under it. Spring stepped out from beneath the slab and let it slam back down to the floor with a loud THUMP. Marionette didn't so much as twitch. To his surprise and relief, her mask was in one piece. Smudged and faded, but otherwise intact. That was a good sign but didn't indicate that she was alright internally, which was what really mattered.

Beginning to panic a bit, he used the only method he knew how to figure out if she were alive or not. He knelt down and placed his hand over her chest. Warmth. Not as much as there should be, but it was there nonetheless. Her soul had not left her body. Relaxing a little, Spring soon realized that the sirens had gotten significantly louder than before. He needed to leave, but where could he go?

As he pondered this, a charred and still burning piece of paper floated by and stuck to the wall. **"ROBOTS SCRAPPED!"** the headline boldly proclaimed, **"After only being open a few short weeks, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria on 3387 Ruby Road is closing its doors."** _3387 Ruby Road_... He was pretty sure he knew where that was, as he'd seen it in Afton's memories once or twice. He didn't like those memories, nor his own from the time, but at least they were serving a purpose.

Spring picked up Marionette and carried her bridal style towards the exit. As he pushed open the door, however, a large blue grid materialized in front of him.

"Oh great," He muttered with a roll of his eyes. As Spring neared the grid, it gradually shifted to red, and then eventually filled into a translucent red wall, surrounding the premises as it towered over him. Looking around, he could quickly make out the words DON'T MOVE appearing on the wall in random places. Spring ignored these warnings as he set down Marionette, and moved right up to the wall.

 

As if he stepped out of his own body, a completely invisible Spring placed both hands on the wall and leaned into it. To any passerby, it would seem as if he were just standing there, staring at absolutely nothing. To the dilapidated animatronic, however, he could feel the red barrier pushing back against him, trying to stop him from disobeying his instructions with its electrifying touch. But, unlike the last time he’d tried to leave, the circuits had been damaged and the barrier was weakened.

Despite his circumstances, Spring soldiered on, pressing against the digital barrier with all his mental strength. He pressed harder and harder, using the tiny fractures and imperfections in the code that had developed as a starting point. He continued to push against it until the red wall finally gave way and shattered like glass. Suddenly, Spring found himself back in his own body, standing with his hands in front of him, breathing heavily and feeling fatigued. Normally, he would've taken the time to get his bearings and look at the scenery around him, but there was no time to waste. He picked the still unconscious Marionette back up and left as quickly as possible.

 

Dashing behind a nearby building, he peeked around the corner to see a bright red truck with flashing lights pull into the parking lot. People in reflective yellow and tan suits began jumping out of it. Looking down at his offline companion, he steeled his nerves, and set off into the distance, shielding his eyes from the rising sun.

After a lot of sneaking around and too many close calls with people seeing him, Spring finally made it to Ruby Road. The street looked completely abandoned and desolate, almost like a ghost town. About a block down the road, he found the place he was looking for. A rundown and definitely abandoned "New and Improved" Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria stood, towering over him. Spring gripped the metal handle and opened the partially broken glass doors, cringing from the painfully loud and high pitched squeaking the rusty hinges produced. When he looked inside, things weren't pretty.

 To his right was a rotten and decaying hardwood stage where the toy incarnations had performed. It looked very cheaply made like it couldn't even hold Marionette's weight, much less that of three much heavier animatronics. There were still set party tables with the tablecloths atop them, swaying in the slight breeze like they were the ghost costumes of kids on Halloween. Beyond that was a games corner with a few neglected-looking arcade cabinets, and then a hallway leading further into the building.

Looking to his left, Spring gazed upon what was probably his best stroke of luck in at least 30 years. Marionette's signature box was sitting in the corner, next to some black shelves lined with stuffed animals caked in dust. At first, this confused him, until he recalled that she'd been reintroduced in this building as a prize giver. Frankly, this suited her better from what he remembered of her personality before he got locked up. He only knew this from Afton's ramblings, Spring had never actually so much as set foot in this building before. Walking over, he opened the box to find pitch black darkness inside, something else he'd forgotten was a thing. Setting her gently down inside the box and folding the flaps over the top, he explored around a bit more.

 There was another door just to his right, and when he peeked through there was another table with an unfinished puzzle sitting on it. Some blocks were strewn haphazardly across the floor, as if a small child had set them up, and knocked them all down in destructive fun. A short raised section mimicked a stage where Spring could only assume a different animatronic than the main three had performed. This was similar to Foxy's set up in the first pizzeria, so it makes sense that the management would use something similar.

 Turning around and wandering over to the hallway near the game cabinets, he quietly strolled down the hall. He noted that there were two bathrooms, a utility closet, and a kitchen. A door labeled 'Parts and Services' also presented itself at the end of the hall. Resolutely ignoring the door, he turned left down a much more spacious hallway with four doors, two on either side and at the end what looked to be an office. Spring had ever seen an office that spacious or exposed. Bypassing the party room doors, he entered the room at the end of the hall.

 

Definitely a security office, he could see the tablet lying face down on the desk. Spring picked it up and tried to turn it on, but the battery was dead. Looking through the drawers, he found a sturdy flashlight and a few sticky notes with what looked like shopping lists on them. That is if shopping lists included tasers and flamethrowers. Other than that, the only thing of real note were the two massive vents on either side of the room, bigger than the ones at Fazbear's Fright, as one of the newspapers the guard had brought in called it.

Heading back down the hallway, he peeked into the four doors lining the large hallway, finding the exits, or perhaps entrances, to the vents in the security room in the first two. Considering the rooms for a moment, he made a decision. Walking quickly to the main room, Spring opened up the present box to find Marionette was still asleep. Picking up the entire box he set it within one of the rooms closest to the office and wedged it between a table and the wall the vent was on. He then decided to see if he couldn't get the generator working while he waited for Mari to wake up, provided he could find it.

 

'It can't be that difficult.'

* * *

 As it turns out, it was that difficult. Finding it wasn't all that hard, all he had to do was break the lock on the utility room as it stared him in the face. It was then that he realized he had no idea how to actually make one of these things work. Though he knew he at least had a very small one built into his endoskeleton. Actually, he was fairly certain that he wasn't even running off it now. More likely, his soul was the thing fueling him at this point.

Pulling his thoughts back on track, Spring stepped into the room and looked over the breaker box and generator. They were both heavily rusted and looked about as dead as machines could get. He sighed and got to work figuring out how to if not fix the things, then at least get them working. Two hours and a number of food-related swears later, Spring had finally done it. After flicking a switch in the breaker box, the lights flickered on in the room. He'd actually managed to fix something! Flicking on the lights to the hallway, office and the party room that he'd placed Marionette's box, he began laughing gleefully. Those two hours of frustration were definitely worth it! "Stupid generator, stupid humans not properly taking care of things. You can't defeat me this time!" He said triumphantly, making his way through the now dimly lit hallway to make sure everything was working as it should.

Entering the party room, he noticed with pride that the lights here were also on. Smiling to himself he ambled over to where Mari's box was and lifted the flaps only to be greeted with emptiness. She was awake and apparently feeling well enough to move around. Excellent! He was glad she was okay, but then...

_'What if she leaves before I can explain?'_

 

He felt a sinking feeling rest itself upon his shoulders. Feeling desperate to find her before that happened he tried calling.

"Marionette? Where did you go?"

He checked under the table and glanced into the vent. No sign of her. He went back out the door and entered the room opposite the one he'd left to check there. He'd just stepped a few feet in when he heard a thud from the hallway. Turning his head, he saw her back away from the wall as they made eye contact.

"Mari-" He started before she was off again, clearly going for the doors he'd locked with some severed wires he found in the utility room. Hopefully, it'd buy him some time as he barreled down the hallways as fast as his rusted and atrophied joints would allow him. She was climbing out the glass door and was most of the way out when he caught her by the leg. Giving her a pained expression, he told her what he'd hoped at the very least would keep her from continuing to try to run away.

 

"Please don't go. I can explain everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep trying to describe them using human things like breathing and having to mentally slap myself. If you see any errors let me know, please! Big thanks to SpaceCat010 for betaing!


	3. Decisions, decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emotions and lots of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lateness, with school starting up life got hectic.

[System reboot complete.]

[Starting up...]

Everything hurt.

Marionette awoke within a very small yet very familiar space. She'd recognize the feeling of her box anywhere. Huffing a bit, she adjusted her position within the pitch-black confines. Once she was more or less comfortable, she decided it was certainly better than that lousy open hallway where Springtrap could come shuffling through at any moment. Not even mentioning the cameras everywhere that severely inhibited her choices of hiding spots. Come to think of it, that hallway was destroyed and she was trapped beneath a felled ceiling piece last she checked.

How did she get here?

Shifting again and fighting to stay calm against the rising panic, she rose out of the lightly closed box just enough for her glowing white irises to peek out. She was in the toy incarnation of the Pizzeria! Based on the massive open vent just beyond her box, she guessed she was in one of the party rooms near the security office. How did her box get here? More importantly, how did she get here? The last thing Marionette remembered was that she got stuck under the caving ceiling in that horrible haunted house. Clearly, she wasn't dead, unless her afterlife was being stuck in a dilapidated recreation of the Pizzeria that she'd previously lived in. She certainly hoped that wasn't the case. Overhead, the lights flickered a bit before staying on, casting the room in a cheerful pale yellow. Faint laughter could be heard from down the hallway.

She wasn't alone.

With a tightening feeling in her strings, she heard the familiar voice a little more clearly, "Stupid generator, stupid humans not properly taking care of things. You can't defeat me this time!" As Springtrap ranted his voice got closer and closer. Panicking, Marionette ducked back down in her box but quickly realized that playing asleep wasn't going to work forever, at least not with Spring in the building with her. Making a split-second decision, she dove out of her box and into the vent as quietly as possible, crawled to the corner and waited to see if he came in the room.

He did.

Extinguishing the lights of her eyes, she watched as he went over to the box and carefully opened the flaps, no doubt thinking she was still asleep. No way was she about to be around when he found her missing. Slipping quickly through the vent to the security room she entered the next one as she heard her name being called.

"Marionette? Where did you go?" Funny, he almost sounded scared and, dare she say it, desperate? How unfortunate, Marionette wasn't about to fall for that shtick again. Last time she did, well… the floor of the parts and service in the building before this one still had the red stain last she knew. The cleaners had always been rather lazy when it came to places the public wouldn't see.

Picking up the tablet, she connected to the camera system remotely through it and saw Spring exiting the room she'd been in through the flickering static on the dim screen. Perfect. After closing the program and setting the piece of junk back down, Marionette silently slid back into the vent she came from. Peeking out the door, Springtrap was looking around the room opposite her, his back turned. This was her chance. She turned the corner and sped down the hallway like a bullet streaking towards its target. Ignoring her still damaged body's protests was evidently a bad idea, as she overestimated her ability to make the corner and slammed against the far wall with her shoulder, eliciting a soft hiss of pain and a loud smack from the contact. The noise was loud enough to get the infernal rabbit's attention as he poked his head out the door almost immediately after. "Mari-" He started, but she was already making a beeline for the door. Hearing the rabbit's heavy footfalls rapidly approaching her, she tried to open the doors only to find that a thick band of loose wires had been wrapped around the handles.

'Time to improvise.'

One of the double doors had most of the glass missing on the upper part of the window, so she began to stuff herself through it as quickly as possible without cutting herself on the remaining shards, one of the only perks of being a smaller animatronic besides speed and agility. She almost made it, but it seemed she wasn't allowed to leave any building without somehow getting held back. The rabbit had grabbed her leg and she was now awkwardly lingering mostly out the window with only what would be about a foot left within the pizzeria. Twisting herself around, she went to... well, she wasn't sure. Slap him? Like that'd do any good with her flimsy, damaged limbs. Instead, she looked over her shoulder to berate him, but before she could say a word,

"Please don't go, I can explain everything!" He blurted out.

"Why shouldn't I?" She hissed. "There is nothing left to explain, its over, finally over, and I'm done. Done with the deaths, the hurt and being trapped. Most importantly, I'm done with having to be around you."

The words coming from Marionette's mouth hit him like a venomous sting, causing him to recoil slightly but not to relinquish his grip.

"I-I don't want to be alone."

'Hmph. Words of a fool.'

"Maybe you should've thought of that before you started killing everyone around you!" Marionette's temper was beginning to flare but she couldn't find it in her to reel herself back. "If you'd had any sort of brain function back then, you could've avoided all of this, but NO! Now there is no one left, nowhere to go, and nothing makes me stay here anymore! LET ME GO!"

She began her struggle to get out the door with a renewed vigor. Still, the rabbit kept a firm hold. She prepared to continue to give him a piece of her mind before he cut her off.

"I know, and I also know that there is nothing I can do to make it up to you right now," Spring started, the lights of his eyes dimming in sadness and shame, "I screwed up, really badly and those innocent kids lost their lives because of it. Then, when I tried to make it right I only trapped him here with them so they still couldn't move on. I know I didn't try hard enough then, but I want to try again now. Nothing I do now can make up for what I did, I've permanently screwed up so many things that can't be fixed no matter what anymore and I really don't want our friendship to be one of them. I don't want to be on my own anymore... I… I miss you, Mari."

He said it with such remorse and conviction that Marionette actually began to consider his words. It was then he finally broke eye contact with her and paused, seeming to collect himself. His gaze on the floor, Springtrap continued.

"If-if you really hate me that much now, I don't blame you. I'm not going to force you to stay. Hell, you'd probably be just fine on your own, you're smart enough to survive despite being what we are. All I'm going to do is ask, no, beg you to stay because well, despite everything both of us have done and been through, I still want to be your friend."

Still not looking at her, in fact, she got the feeling that if they could, his eyes would be squeezed closed, he relinquished his hold. For a moment, Marionette was too stunned from his admission to do anything before slowly bringing the rest of her body out the window. Now was the time to make a decision, and she'd have to make it now.

'Stay or leave?'

The exposed feeling Marionette felt while in the (thankfully) still abandoned street caused her feelings to war with each other. On one hand, he'd betrayed everyone and had claimed innocence, which was absurd considering he still could've done at least something the second time, but he'd metaphorically stood back and just watched the murders happen; not to mention a few attempts. In Mari's eyes, this was almost as bad as the murders themselves. On the other hand, he'd admitted he was wrong, apologized even! Assuming he wasn't acting, and Marionette didn't think he was (even with their profession), he sounded genuinely remorseful for his previous actions, or rather, inactions. Despite that, however, the potential threat of the larger and more unhinged animatronic lingered in her mind.

Making her decision, she gathered her energy and jumped.

* * *

Feeling the familiar tremble of the crisp fall air, Spring finally looked up again.

She was gone.

He was alone.

Again.

Spring supposed that he deserved it. Frankly, he wasn't all that surprised, but it still stung. The overwhelming urge to destroy something was immediately present, anything to ignore the sudden hole in his chest, but he suppressed it.

'It was giving in to those sort of things that made Mari leave in the first place,' He scolded himself.

He needed to distract himself, preferably without violence. He already got the generator working, what else could he do? Normally, his nights were spent hunting the guard or futilely ignoring Afton.

'The guard...' Perhaps Spring could get the tablet working?

'Why not?

Wandering back down the empty hall, he still couldn't bring himself to look in the parts and service room. The horrible feeling of that loss was too overwhelming. It was too quiet. Too empty. He had already been stuck in the back room of the restaurant by the time this particular rendition opened, but the parts room still brought up bad memories.

Turning the corner into the party rooms, Spring heard a faint rustling. It didn't sound like mice. Spring knew all too well what mice sounded like. It was coming from the party room with Mari's box. Hope sprang up in his chest as he felt his servos tighten in anticipation. If it was some human who'd slipped in through the back, he'd probably ki- err, politely escort them to the door. Shaking the unwanted thought from his head, he stilled himself and peeked through the door frame.

Nothing seemed amiss at first glance. The tables were undisturbed and Mari's box was in its place. A lone mouse skittered across the floor. Disappointment and rage with just a hint of self-loathing began to flare when the aforementioned box shifted. Pausing, Spring waited. It shifted again! Narrowing his eyes, he took a step into the room to investigate. Instantly, static rang out, surprising him into retracting his step and falling back. Unable to recalibrate his balance in time, Spring fell to the floor. Mere moments after he hit the checkered tile floor, a soft chime rang out, sounding a bit off-key and lethargic.

'There's no way.'

Lifting his head from the floor, there were two glowing dots shining from the depths of the present box. Seeing his gaze, another short warning hiss of static was emitted before the box closed and the eyes disappeared.

Spring laid there for another minute, unable to comprehend what he'd just witnessed. She had left, but she was here! Mari had stayed! Pulling himself up, he gazed at the box. It was still motionless. Smiling more than just his usual decayed grin, a real smile (Though his face hadn't really moved), Spring continued to the guard room feeling like he'd just performed for the first time, a little scared and nervous, but elated all the same. He knew it was going to take some time and effort to get her to warm up to him, he wasn't that naive. She didn't forgive very fast, and he knew the odds of her deciding to forget were close to impossible. He'd just have to show her he was going to change and stay that way. He knew he could do good, and he'd start with that dead tablet.

* * *

Sitting in her wonderful box once again after warding the rabbit off, Marionette settled in to get some much-needed rest after that expense of energy. Admittedly, she had been pleasantly surprised when she hadn't immediately heard the sound of things being destroyed. It seemed she'd stay after all.

Springtrap wasn't the only one who didn't like the silence.


	4. Progression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a day late. I lost the original detailed schedule and plan for the next couple chapters so I made a new one but found the old one two days ago and old me had a much better plan for pacing and such than current me so I decided to go with that plan and rewrite this chapter a bit. So the good news is that Chapter 5 is already pretty much written and will certainly be on time this Saturday. Additionally, to make for the shortness of the chapter there will be a little surprise on Wednesday. ;)

The following week had been fairly uneventful. Marionette had moved her box back to the prize corner after the first day, and seemed a bit more at ease with it being back in its proper spot. Spring made sure to give her some space after the time he'd surprised her one morning by saying hello. Unfortunately, all he got was a surprise punch for his trouble. Not strong enough to do any real physical damage, but it was a good reminder that while she wasn't as physically strong as a normal-sized animatronic, she was still a force to be reckoned with. Also, that he wasn't allowed too close. He tried to be in the large main room as much as possible. She didn't seem to mind him being in the same room until he got a little too close to the prize corner, in which case she'd give him a warning hiss or would simply glare at him until he backed away.

Marionette was always a fairly quiet being, and valued her space from what he remembered, so he didn't take offense to her not really talking to him all that much. Her hostility seemed only half-hearted anyway after a few days, as though she was doing it on principle. She may not have forgiven him yet, but Spring could tell she was to come around eventually. He would just have to try a bit harder to earn her full-on trust, which was exactly what he'd planned to do today.

He'd done some digging through the boxes in the office and found… a music box! It wasn't the one that was used to lull her to sleep, (thank goodness, because that could've turned into a massive misunderstanding) but rather it was labeled "Tangled Up" by Caro Emerald according to the fading sticker on the bottom. He had no idea what that was, but it was a music box, and Mari loved music boxes.

_ 'Just like how she loved me...' _

Spring shook that thought out of his head. Now was not the time to mope around, he'd been lucky just to get her to stay at all. It'd been a challenge to hide his discovery, as he'd seen Mari occasionally watching him out of the corner of his eye for almost the past week. She was sneaky about it though, being mostly black allowed her to easily blend in with the shadows. He also wasn't totally sure he'd seen her every time, or if it was just a few times, and the admittedly stupid checkerboard pattern on the walls the other times.

It was kind of funny, actually. Spring vaguely remembered that there were a few times in the diner playing hide and seek where they didn't find her until the next morning when she popped out of her box to do her job. She never told them where she'd hid, though he had a theory that she'd hide in the ceiling with the insulation after finding some pieces of it on the floor once.

Spring had noticed those little memories that he hadn't even realized he'd forgotten until they started springing up. (Heh, springing up.)

_ 'I'll have to remember that one.' _

It made him wonder what else he'd forgotten, and hoped it wasn't anything important. It also reminded him that there was at least a 40-year gap where the world had gone on without him while he was locked in the backroom. What was he missing from there? He already knew that at least one extra batch of animatronics had come through, as their faces were on the fading, tattered posters scattered throughout this establishment. Based on the torn up newspaper clippings, he knew that it was the next building after the establishment he knew, and the sounds he could hear before Fazbear's Fright went up in flames told him that they had already passed on.

_ 'Just like the others.' _

A cold chill ran up his metal spine, and Spring had finally figured out why that kept happening. Marionette was nearby. He pretended he hadn't noticed her and continued going through the box before he found some blue papers and looked through them.

_ 'Fresh fliers!' _

He pulled out the glossy pieces of paper to look at them. There were 6 animatronics on it, including Mari. A brown bear, a blue rabbit, a yellow chicken, and white fox, a small somewhat unsettling looking child with a balloon, and Marionette about halfway out of her box; all with rosy cheeks and somewhat plastic-y looking facial structures. The title "Grand Reopening!" was above them with information in smaller text below.

"The Toy Generation." Came a voice from behind him.

Spring tried not to jump at the sudden voice, and barely kept himself from whipping around to face Marionette who had decided to join him. "That was when the management reintroduced me in, and swapped the original four for the toy models. They were all good beings while they were around, I miss them sometimes." She said in a sad yet thoughtful tone. Spring risked a peek at her over his shoulder. Marionette's head was tilted in a contemplative manner as she looked at the flier.

"Hmm, they look a lot more cartoon-y than the rest of us." Spring observed cautiously, not wanting to accidentally insult her.

"Hm, they do." Marionette agreed with a hint of amusement in her voice, "It was fun to tease them. Toy Bonnie in particular as on top of the name, they'd decided to give him female eyelashes but a male voice and identity. It was hilarious to hear him complain after hours about how many kids called him a girl." Marionette reminisced.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to them?" Spring asked even more cautiously, "I.. I understand if you don't want to talk about it." He wasn't ruining this chance at conversation within the first minute of it starting.

"No, it's alright. I've had my time to grieve. Due to your… incident," Spring flinched slightly but she continued on, "but I'll give you the run-down. After some... events... it was decided that the original crew would go into storage, while the Toy generation were outfitted with facial recognition and connected to a police database. Apparently it was a last-minute attempt to make the children at the pizzeria safer. I just think it's kind of funny that they decided to give me a gift-giving job, instead of staying with the guard position. Not that I complained, though, giving gifts was much more fun than just watching, but I never stopped watching."

"I noticed," Spring said dryly. She looked at him and responded with an equally dry tone, "It's not as though I don't have every reason to. The last time I took my eyes off you, things didn't end up well for anyone. Better safe than sorry." She had a point.

"Touché."

"Moving on, the new tech was still experimental and there were some… bugs. They didn't really do anything except make their memory for connecting the names and faces of children absolutely abysmal, so it wasn't really a huge problem to the management. Then, this one night guard came; Vincent was what he called himself," She said with the most disdain Spring had heard her refer to anyone with beside himself, "He may have had a new name and a slightly different face, but I wasn't fooled, and neither were the others. Afton was back."

_ 'Well, that explained the venom.' _

"He began to do the shifts and would taunt us the entire time. The toys picked up on our aggression towards him and began to go after him as well. But, he survived the week and got transferred to the day shift. Also at the end of that week, a new technician for us was hired. Some moron named Fritz Smith who didn't know what he was doing absolutely destroyed what remained of their facial recognition abilities. Not just the Toys, but the original four, too. Toy foxy ended up getting the worst of it. For reasons unfathomable to me, the children had torn her apart, and management was tired of putting her back together so they left her as a mangled version of herself. That was already hard enough on her hard drive, not to mention her mental stability, but his tampering was the final straw. She couldn't tell who was good or bad, and she was always one to leap before she looked, anyway.

She confused the poor day guard with Vincent and well… Jeremy is left-handed now, To say the least. Eventually, the Toys were deemed unsafe and were sent to be scrapped. I left to finish what I'd started, and soon enough they opened the building previous backup and put the original four back on stage. Unfortunately, it was only open for about two years before the stigma from before finally forced it to close its doors or risk bankruptcy. 28 years later, the horror attraction was opened." Marionette trailed off, and Spring absorbed what he'd learned. Soon enough, he realized something.

"We're really old."

Marionette looked at him oddly.

"Of all the things you could take from my monologue, you got that?" She asked incredulously. She scoffed and got up from her kneeling position and turned to leave.

"The fliers weren't the only thing I found in the boxes," Spring said quietly.

She stopped and looked over her shoulder. He could imagine her raising an eyebrow like he'd seen some parents do when their kids asked for something wilder than normal. He pulled out the music box from where he'd hidden it behind one of the boxes. Her eyes seemed to glow brighter for a second as she tensed up. Noticing this, Spring hurriedly continued before she flipped, "It's called Tangled Up, I thought you'd like it." He held it out. Relaxing somewhat, Marionette slowly came over to inspect the box, gingerly taking it from his hand. She wound the crank a bit and the music emerged, upbeat and jaunty in pace and key. Mari's expression seemed to soften slightly.

"...Thanks."

Marionette left once again, off to do whatever she did when she wasn't watching him or tidying up the aged prize corner.

* * *

 

Before Spring had even opened his eyes, he knew where he was...and who he was with. He took in the rotting, molding smell of the room and his own disgusting scent of decay. He hoped that if he didn't open his eyes that the other occupant wouldn't notice he had come online. A futile hope, but all he could really do was hope.

"Heeeyyyyy Sppriinggyyy~ Come on best buddy, time to pllaayyy~" Spring didn't want to, he refused. He didn't move past focusing his gaze on a spider that was spinning its web in the opposite corner of the room, trying his best to ignore the growing itch to destroy that which wasn't his own. Afton got angry then, he didn't like being ignored, and got right up in Spring's face.

"Come on rabbit, you know you want to. After all, you didn't even try to stop me the first few times, I'd have thought you enjoyed it!" Spring knew better than to indulge the ghost, he'd heard it before. It still hurt. Likely because it was partially true. He hadn't tried to stop it. He stayed silent, doing nothing, as usual. The other being kept up the dialogue but Spring just tuned him out, jaw clenched, gaze never breaking from the spider in the corner. Most of the time, Afton would get bored and go back to doing whatever it was he did to entertain himself aside from trying to provoke Spring. Unfortunately, this wasn't going to be most times. A searing pain went through his head, causing the rabbit to flinch.

A fatal mistake.

"I know you can hear me!" Spring could now feel him too, dragging him down into memories that were both his own and not. Spring tried desperately to block out the images, but some still snuck past. The glint of sharp metal, a tear-streaked face futilely calling for help that would not arrive, bloodstained golden paws, and a mauve uniform splattered with red. The pain was all over, springs digging and slicing into everything. No escape, just panic, despair, and-

Blank.

Pitch black.

There was no temperature, no scent, no feeling.

Just void.

He felt himself being pulled upwards.

There were children! The room was flooded with a cheerful yellow light, and the counter next to him had candies and small toys within. A child approached him and he turned his attention to them. Shyly, they held out a cup stuffed full of tickets to him. A striped arm gently reached out to take them. The child pointed to something behind Spring, and he turned to see shelves with rows of plushies proudly displayed upon it. The small finger was angled towards a yellow bird with a white bib. A Toy Chica plush. How Spring knew this, he didn't know. He also didn't know how it was determined that the child was just a few tickets shy of being able to get it. Oh well, machines made mistakes sometimes. Marionette's hand reached out and grabbed the toy before giving it to the child with a soft chime of happiness. Seeing as no more children were currently vying for his attention, he descended back into darkness.

Once again, it was blank.

Pitch black.

The free-falling sensation continued until Spring awoke abruptly with a lingering sense of fulfillment. He got up from the security desk, (where he'd been fiddling with the monitor again before his battery ran low and he entered recharge mode) and made his way to the main stage room. He'd never awoken from one of his encounters with Afton feeling anything but disgust and an urge to destroy something. Making his way over to the far corner he stopped just outside the familiar counter.

"Thank you." He said quietly, just above a whisper. The box did not move, yet Spring knew its occupant had heard him. Turning again, he went back into the hallway to avoid the sunlight, and more importantly the gaze of a passerby.

Sitting back down in the office chair, Spring got back to work.


	5. Next Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bored shenanigans of a puppet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was my birthday yesterday! I got a bit caught up in celebrating and am now dying of sleep deprivation. So worth it. Enjoy this little bit of foreshadowing.  
> Also, the fact that this site won't let me indent paragraphs is slowly driving me insane.

It wasn't often that Marionette became truly bored.

Usually she was quite content to sit for long periods at a time, just observing the things around her, but it had finally gotten old after doing it for days. Spring wasn't doing anything interesting enough to watch, and there weren't any people to watch outside now that evening had come. Marionette eventually turned her attention to the shelves lined with stuffed animals, but blew it off soon after. Marionette had already organized and reorganized the raggedy plushies too many times.

She'd sorted them by color, species, gender, personality, anything she could think of. Eventually, she'd think of something else and rearrange them again, but for now? She had no idea what to do with herself. There were no kids to play with, it was 10 o'clock at night, and the restaurant she was in had long since closed anyway. She briefly entertained the idea of winding the music box that Spring had gotten her, but quickly decided against it, knowing it would only make her more restless as it seemed to have an energizing effect on her. Then she'd have even more energy and nothing to spend it on.

A broken, static-y sigh tore from Marionette's mouth.

There was nothing to do around here, and she'd only woken up from a nap an hour ago. It was far too soon to try to go back to sleep.

_ 'What to do?' _

She rose all the way out of her box, and actually walked across the floor for once instead of floating. Perhaps it would help burn some energy to physically move around. As the lithe black and white figure stepped around the main room, a number of the floorboards creaked beneath her dainty, pointed feet. They weren't really feet, just the rounded ends of her tapered legs. Not the greatest things for walking in the first place, which is why she usually chose to float.

She was standing in the middle of the main room, glancing around the aged building when a bright light followed by a quick, steady movement outside caught her eye.

_ 'A car!' _

She quickly ducked to the side of the glass doors, and watched intently as it pulled into the parking lot of the little store across the street. It didn't get much business, but a few nights ago some people had broken in. Thankfully, they were caught but it had been both entertaining and mildly concerning. Entertaining to watch the whole thing go down, and concerning that someone might decide to start snooping around the pizzeria.

A single person got out of the beat-up grey sedan and stretched their back, turning to the side just enough that Marionette could spot the shiny gold badge on the left breast of his uniform.

_ 'Ah, a security guard.' _

It made sense, considering the previously mentioned event. Marionette watched as the person, it looked like a man in his late twenties to early thirties, entered the building and turned on the lights. Definitely a man. He had shaggy black hair and a fair complexion. She couldn't make out his eye color, but he had a somewhat slim build, and his clothes looked a tiny bit big on him. He seemed... oddly familiar. She couldn't place where she'd seen him before, though. Perhaps he just had a resemblance to a parent that had once come in.

Turning away from the window, she looked around and resigned herself to wandering aimlessly about the building; at least until she was tired enough to sleep until morning, when she could watch the people outside again.

* * *

 

Only two hours had passed. Two whole hours! Marionette still wasn't the least bit fatigued, and Spring was currently on his own recharging cycle so she couldn't even turn to him for entertainment of any kind. She kept returning to the window to see what the guard was doing, but he was just sitting at the desk playing on his phone every time she looked. He appeared to be about as bored as she felt. Then, Marionette got an idea. It might be dangerous and more than a little risky, but it would end the boredom for both of them, or for her at the very least. She could've sworn her smile felt like it widened just a tad with her growing excitement. She gathered her energy and jumped, instantaneously appearing in the back of the little store.

She peered her head around the side of one of the shelves. The man hadn't even moved, much less noticed her entrance.

_ 'Perfect.' _

She ducked back behind the shelf and examined its contents. It appeared to be bags of various gummy foods, packed with enough sugar to give a pizzeria full of children sugar highs. These would do. As quietly as possible, she pulled one off the metal wire they were suspended from. The soft, faint crinkle of plastic went unnoticed by the guard. Doing some mental calculations, she pulled back her arm and threw the bag at the guard.

_ WHUMP _

"Ow! What the-"

_ 'Success!' _

Marionette heard him bend down and pick up the bag.

"Where did this come from? Huh, weird." He sounded mildly annoyed, but mostly confused and tired.

_ 'Weird indeed,' _ She mentally smirked.

Hearing him begin approach, she jumped to the hallway with the bathrooms she had seen on the other side of the room. Peeking around the corner, Marionette watched him put the bag back and gaze around confusedly for a few seconds, but went back to his desk. Evidently, he'd written it off as a fluke.

_ 'Foolish human.' _

Deciding to use telepathy this time, she grabbed a bag of chips off the shelf, and the minute he seemed absorbed back into the mental stimulation of his phone, thrust it at his head. He repeated his previous actions.

_ 'Booooring.' _

This time, she decided to spice it up a little. Tossing the chip bag at him once more, she waited for him to go to sit down again before yanking the chair from beneath him. Marionette barely suppressed her high-pitched giggle as he fell flat on his rear.

"That's it! Who or whatever you are, stop this right now! It's not funny!" The man hollered, clearly starting to crack. Oh, but it so was. Marionette hurled another item at him, but this time he caught it and lobbed it back from where she'd thrown it. He had no idea. She threw it back again, this time without letting it touch the floor. "So that's how it's gonna be huh?" He marched over to where the item had come from, but unsurprisingly, to Marionette at least, found nothing. From behind him this time, she threw a box of Skittles at the back of his head.

_ 'Bullseye!' _

If he wasn't pissed before, he sure was now. Based on his current attitude, his reactions were only going to get increasingly wild and, more importantly, increasingly entertaining.

He started running about the place, and she had to change hiding spots a few times, all the while still lightly tossing random merchandise at the human. She had no desire to harm him; after all, he hadn't done anything to deserve harm, nor really her playful wrath, but at least he wouldn't be bored all night. His frustration and anger fulfilled her. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed trolling people with her 'spooky powers' up until this moment. This was easily the most fun she'd had in years.

She'd stop for periods of time to lull him into a false sense of security, before starting her little game up again which only infuriated him all the more. Sadly, the sun eventually came up, and Marionette knew it was time to leave. She chucked a bottle of water back into the men's bathroom and heard it clatter across the tile floor. The guard hastily got up and went after the noise, giving Marionette the perfect opportunity to go up to the desk as he disappeared around the corner. Reaching for a nearby pen and pad of sticky notes in a half-open drawer, she began to write.

Mike had just about enough of this nonsense. It was his first day working at this place and he was already fairly certain it was haunted. First that bag of orange gummies, then the chips, and then the whole store it seemed. Why him? Every. Darn. Time.

_ 'First Freddy's and now this,' _ he thought with a scowl, rushing to try to catch the perpetrator from the noises in the bathroom.

Ghosts weren't real, he knew that. This was probably some punk kid from the rather shady looking neighborhood a street over who did this to other places in the area, and had decided to pick on him on his first day. Arriving in the bathroom, Mike was just in time to see the object, a water bottle, finish it's slow spin to a stop. He quickly checked the stalls. Empty. A clatter out front and the sound of the door alerted him that whoever was in the building was getting away.

Mike all but sprinted out of the bathroom only to witness the door close, with no one in sight. He sighed, at least he could leave without worrying about them still being here, it was someone else's problem if they came back later in the day. He walked tiredly over to his bag and picked it up. He went to grab his keys, but noticed a brightly colored sticky note atop them from the stack in the drawer. He felt his heart sink as he read the message written in small, neat letters.

_ Thanks for the smiles tonight, hope you can find some as the day goes on. I look forward to playing again! ;) _

_ Signed, Strings _

Mike rolled his eyes and left the building without a word.

  
  



	6. Little Talks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marionette and Spring finally have a solid sit down to talk about what's been happening lately and how to go forward. Strange things start happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took an entirely different course than what I had planned but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Spring was in the office again. He’d gotten about half the boxes on the far left side unpacked and had found some decently interesting stuff. Some holiday decorations here, various props there. Extra curtains and some tools. Nothing too exciting but it had been fun to put up the decorations and mess around with the props. Spring had found a pirate costume that he could only assume was Foxy’s at some point that he had stashed for later endeavors. Aside from that, there were some extra paper cups and plates and such. The box he’d just opened was filled with some sort of silky black fabric that was layered with netting beneath it, presumably to make it poof outwards as it seemed to be pretty stiff. He was about to pull it out when,

“Having fun?” Marionette intoned behind him. He felt her move closer. They’d gotten more comfortable in each other’s presence ever since the stage incident a few days ago. She was more willing to come near him and Spring felt that their conversations were going a little smoother than before. While he’d been trying to talk to her, there was a distinct lack of topics to speak about that weren’t bordering sensitive territory for either of them. Currently, they had an unspoken contest to see who would get bored first whenever they were in the main party room. Spring was losing.

“I am indeed! Wanna come see what’s in this one? It looks right up your alley.”

“Ha. ha. Just because something is black does not mean it’s mi-oh my gosh!” She cut herself off and picked up the black fabric.

“What is it?” 

“My skirt! I lost it ages ago when this place shut down. I had no idea it was still here.” She said excitedly as she unfolded it and unclasped something in the back. It turned out he was looking at the lowermost layer as the top was a purple that matched her vertical stripes on her face with a white ribbon at the top that tied at the back. It was in the style of a tutu and had a number of mesh and tulle layers beneath it in white, black, and purple which made it stick out from her body.

“Looks cool! Wasn’t that a gift for the diner’s first birthday?” 

“Yes, it was. I kept getting mistaken for a boy so adding a tutu seemed to do the trick. There was also a bow of the same color,” She leaned over the box and gently moved some things around with her hand until, “Ah Hah! Here it is!” 

 

When she’d said ‘bow’ Spring had expected a little ribbon that went around her wrist or something not the two foot in width monster that was pulled out of a side of the box. It was bigger than her head! Which was exactly where she put it. Holding it up to the back of her head, Spring could only guess that some of her strings came out and secured it because there was no other way that thing was going to stay put. 

“Ohhhh I’m so happy! I forgot how much I missed these.” She was tugging and adjusting the skirt and bow.

“I wonder what else is in this box.” Spring began pulling things out and Marionette stopped her happy preening to watch. Some streamers and uninflated balloon packets. An air pump (score!), small packets of glitter and confetti, and some extra plastic table cloths. A few stuffed animals (which Mari immediately snatched up and began doting on, evidently uninterested in anything else that could be in the box) and at the very bottom a wooden X with a bunch of little hooks on it. Spring vaguely remembered seeing it before but couldn’t place what it was. 

Pulling it out he turned to Marionette to ask her if she knew what it was only to have the words die in his metaphorical throat at the look of pure horror on her face. Immediately, he dropped it back in the box. It didn’t seem to make her feel any better and she remained frozen on the spot, staring at the empty space where the thing was. Her strings seemed to be tightening around her and it hit Spring what the thing was. Her cross. How could he be so stupid?!

“Marionette?” He got up and slowly approached her, “Mari? C’mon I’m sorry. Snap out of it, please?” She still hadn’t moved and Spring could only assume she was having a panic attack, not unlike ones he himself was prone to. He didn’t know what to do. Getting closer he lowered himself so his face was level with hers and looked into her fuzzy eyelights. 

“Marionette!” Still nothing. What could he do? He had an idea. He backed up and ran down the hallways to the prize corner, looking around in a panic until he spotted what he needed and grabbed some plushies for good measure. 

Arriving back in the office she still hadn’t moved. Pulling out the music box, he began to wind it. After cranking it a few times he set it on the desk and waited.

It took a few seconds but eventually, she shuddered and jolted, her eyes came back into focus. She seemed to collect herself before looking at the extra plushies Spring had set in her lap and relaxed a bit. Spring decided that now was probably the best time to ask,

“Are you okay?” He had hidden partially behind the desk just in case something more drastic had occurred and stood up. 

“Yes, I...I think I’m alright now. Thank you for snapping me out of that.”

“It's the least I could do to repay you for the stage assistance.” They lapsed into silence. It wasn’t awkward but it wasn’t totally comfortable either. They stayed like this for about a minute before Marionette let out a mock sigh and made eye contact with him. 

“I think we need to talk.”

Spring cocked his head to the side, silently asking her to elaborate.

“We’ve been kinda dancing around each other, mostly because my own fears and worries but, I’ve been realizing that’s pretty dumb. When you asked me to stay you said that you wanted to be friends again and frankly, I don’t want to be alone either. Tolerating you in my space is hardly trying to be your friend again and you've done nothing but respect my boundaries this entire time. Yet, oh, I don’t really know exactly how I feel any more but I do know I’m tired of being afraid. I remember at this location they did this drive for the teenagers that would visit and put up posters for healthy relationships and the first thing on all of them was communication and I know that the posters were referencing a different kind of relationship but they have a point. Suffering on our own isn’t going to help either of us. So, in conclusion, we need to talk.” 

“Okay.” He said.

“Okay?” She seemed a little shocked that he’d agreed that quickly.

“I think talking is a great idea.” Spring came out from behind the desk and sat across from her. “What should we talk about first?” She contemplated this for a bit before answering. 

“I think starting with what just happened would be good.”

“Alright” Spring waited.

“I don’t like my cross.” Spring snorted and she narrowed her eyes at him but held no real menace. “I’ve never been particularly fond of it even when we were first starting out it just restricted my movement a bit and was more of a nuisance than anything but for the sake of not arousing suspicion of a sentient puppet, I tolerated it. It wasn’t until the first pizzeria that I hated it. 

While you were in the backroom and HE was still running around after the second time he did the thing he took the night shift. The kids saw this as a perfect opportunity to take revenge for their ah, predicaments. Charlotte was content to let them go after him and bide her time. Eventually, that time came. Bonnie had gotten into the office but he managed to slip through his fingers and came running out into the little main room where we laid in wait. It didn’t go as planned. Despite all the reasons to hate him, I have to give him some credit, the guy was agile. He dodged Charlotte’s attempts to grab him while the other children made their way to help. Then he got my cross.”

Spring had a bad feeling about where this was going as Marionette had to pause for a moment.

“I had never felt so helpless aside from when I acquired Charlotte. There was nothing I could do. It was like when someone held the cross my body just went limp in response despite me telling it to move. I think he realized this because he had started to do… something. I’m not actually certain what he was going to do before Foxy leaped at him but I can tell you the beginnings of it hadn’t felt good. 

Nothing came of it for a few days before he did it during the day shift. He put on a little show for the kids but I had never felt so violated. The minute the restaurant closed and the employee’s left that night I chucked it in the trash and poked little holes in the ceiling as stand-ins to keep the lifeless illusion. The kids got him in the backroom only a few weeks later. I had no idea that the thing had been salvaged from the trash as no one had really questioned the change.”

“Is that why you were so tense when you helped me out of the stage?” she nodded. “Oh geez, I’m sorry.” Spring looked down.

“No no! I chose to help you, I was...happy to despite my fears.” There was a moment of silence. “I feel a lot better after saying that aloud. I guess it was cathartic but I don’t know if I really want to continue right now unless you have something you want to get out of the way right now.”

“Nah, I think I’m good for tonight. Maybe we can do another one of these tomorrow?” Spring asked, looking up at her again. 

“That sounds nice. It's your turn tomorrow then.” She joked. 

“Ha. Alright, sounds like a plan.” It was as Spring got up that he noticed that there was something reflective on her face near her eyes. He paused a moment and she looked at him curiously. “Your face is shiny near your eyes.” She seemed almost visibly confused before bringing a hand up to her face and wiping across. She started as she pulled her hand away. 

“What is it?” Spring inquired. She turned her hand around to show him. There was a small streak of purple across the tips. “Something like this happened a few days ago, my cheeks got fuzzy, but I thought it was just me or a trick of the light or something and forgot about it but evidently it wasn’t a one-time thing. I’ve never cried before though. I think that’s what this is, tears.”

“Now that you mention it I think I’ve noticed some changes myself. I had a lot of holes from decay but recently I thought some of them had gotten smaller and others were completely gone. I thought I had just imagined it. Actually, we’ve been doing stuff like sighing and snorting that we haven’t done before but it feels strangely natural.”

“Hmm. That is quite strange. I wonder why this is happening. Is it because we were possessed for a time and are adopting human tendencies now that the erm… inhabitants are gone?” Marionette suggested.

“Makes sense to me. I can’t think of any other explanation.” 

“Hmm.” They lapsed into a comfortable silence.

 

“Wanna blow up a balloon and try to play catch?”

“Alright”


	7. Groundbreaking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breaking into some new ground.

In one of the few times Marionette and Spring had conversed with him since their discussion a few days ago, she'd mentioned that the place was disgusting and looking around Spring couldn't help but agree. There was dust and mold and grime covering every surface and despite the lighting, the place still looked rather depressing. A distinct contrast from the brightly colored place of joy he’d seen it as. It took some searching but eventually, Spring managed to dig up some cleaning supplies from a closet in one of the party rooms. They were probably long expired but they'd have to do. Coming back to the main room he saw Marionette was doing some dusting of her own in the prize corner.

"Hey Marionette," He still didn't dare call her Mari just yet, "I found some cleaning supplies and rags in the back if you'd like something more efficient than a plush toy to clean those counters." He offered. She startled a bit and looked down at where she'd been scrubbing with an old Toy Freddy doll (VERY different from the original Freddy doll in every way, as he'd learned after calling it the wrong name two days ago) and sighed in frustration.

"That'd be nice, thank you." She continued glaring at the spot as he approached. She tensed but otherwise allowed his presence as he set down some old rags and only slightly newer cleaning spray with bleach.

"Not gonna lie, I don't know what you're stressing about. Prize corner isn't that bad especially compared to the gaming area. The counter looks fine to me." Spring told her, examining the place she'd been focused on. There was a splatter of what might have been soda at one point but had long since become something other. The rest of the counter had been dusted and was easily the cleanest area in the building. Turning to him with narrowed eyes she responded in a teasing tone,

"Not to offend, but you don't seem overly concerned about hygiene in general. In fact, I don't think you've ever been too concerned with things getting dirty. Remember the last birthday party they allowed you to walk around when the children were eating?"

She sounded like she was smirking at him and she had a valid point. He did remember that day now that she mentioned it. Gold had been beside them and they'd just finished a set and were allowed to walk among the children. Right then, they were eating cake and Gold was content to wait. But Spring? A little cake and the threat of possible stains weren't enough to deter him! Nope, Spring had confidently walked down the steps and managed to spook the birthday kid who, in their shock, had flung her cake and hit her friend across from her. Next thing Spring knew there was a full-on food war going on and he was in the thick of it. It was only when Gold yelled at him that everyone calmed down. After that incident, he had to wait until all the food had been put away before he was allowed off stage. Spring had needed to get new patches of faux fur after that, which management was not happy about. Good times.

"Ha, ha! Fair, but that was fun! Living in a dreary looking dump is not. I'm going to start on the stage." Spring turned and headed towards it.

"Just be careful, this place is falling apart. Some of the boards out there are really falling apart. They creak when I go over them and I FLOAT to get around." Marionette warned him.

* * *

"Don't worry! I got this." He had told her confidently. That was about 15 minutes ago. In the present time, Spring was stuck halfway through the floor of the stage in a large hole and had been there for at least 10. It was only now that Marionette had finished in the prize corner that she came over, snickering softly as she had been since he fell in. Taking in the now pouting bunny, she couldn't help but let out a short chime of amusement and flinched as the misaligned and likely deformed comb whacked some other mechanisms. She really needed to figure out how to repair that. Until then, she could amuse herself by taunting the stuck animatronic.

"Goodness! You've really gotten yourself in a bind haven't you?" She still stayed out of reaching distance. Just because she was willing to call a truce, didn't mean she was about to be reckless.

"Ugghhhhhhh, stop looking so smug and help me out!" A pause, "Please?" Marionette sighed and looked around the room for anything that could be useful to pull him out. Nothing looked viable. The table cloths could make a rope but they were cheap plastic and would simply rip with his weight, the tables were bolted to the ground (not that Marionette could lift them, even with her telekinesis helping) and the stage curtains were in the same boat as the table cloths.

"Are you certain that you are unable to either pull yourself up or go all the down?" She asked. There was one option but she really didn't want to use it if she didn't have to.

"Pretty sure but I'll try again." He first attempted to push himself up but he was angled forwards and if he continued he'd likely sever his spine on some of the wood. He didn't seem to realize this, however, and was actually making some progress before,

"Stop! You're going to hurt yourself going on like that." She admonished him. He looked at her confused before sucking in his chest and saw the problem.

"Oh. That's not good." He said, surveying the potential danger before looking around the room and coming to the same conclusion Marionette had, "There's nothing that would be strong enough to support me if I used it to lift myself up. I'm just going to have to wait for the boards to decay the rest of the way then, huh?" While his tone was joking there was a distinct hint of anxiety beneath the words and Marionette felt herself bend just a little bit. She sighed before heading backstage. “Wait. Where are going? Please don’t leave me here!” Marionette didn’t respond, busy figuring out how to go about this endeavor she was preparing to undertake. The catwalk for the stage lights looked as though it would be strong enough to use as a fulcrum to pull Spring up. Hopefully, it wouldn’t collapse on the both of them but there were no other options at this point.

She gathered herself up and extended her strings over the catwalk. Extending them down further she felt a little thin but this would work with just a little luck. Going over she grabbed the dangling strings and came back to Spring who had been trying to watch her over his shoulder.

“What are you doing?”

“Helping you, what else would I be doing with my strings?”

“I don’t know, puppeteering the plushies?” Marionette sighed exasperatedly,

“Look, just tie these around you and I’ll explain.

“Okay?” Spring questioned but began to do as she asked regardless of his confusion.

“I’m not strong enough to pull you out myself, even with the mechanical advantage of using a pulley-like system. So, you’re going to take the strings above me,” She indicated the ones coming directly out of her body, “and pull yourself directly upwards and out. As fast and safe as possible if you could.” Extending the strings a little farther out so there would be plenty of room between her and him and allowed Spring to grab them. He seemed a little lost as to what to do at first but eventually figured out the best way to pull himself up and out of the hole but still maintained a healthy distance from her. Which she was thankful for. Admittedly she'd had not a small amount of anxiety about allowing him to hold her strings but he had untied himself the moment he was out of the hole, unknowingly earning himself some brownie points.

“You may want to watch your step, we wouldn’t want a repeat,” Marionette commented, pulling her strings back into her person. Much better.

“I will,” Spring replied earnestly looking a bit sheepish. “Thanks for the assist, even if you did take your sweet time laughing first.”

“I only wish I had a camera so I could save it for longer.” She replied without skipping a beat. “Perhaps I should clean the stage while you spruce up that office you’ve taken a shine too.”   
“Good idea, that floor isn’t likely to impale me anytime soon. Thanks again.” Spring responded, taking his leave.

“No problem.”

* * *

 

As Marionette finished up on the stage she couldn’t help but notice that her face felt warm for some reason and had been so since Spring climbed out. Had she exerted herself too much? Her face was porcelain so it shouldn’t be affected by strain on her strings and mechanics. Did she get something on it without realizing? She felt her face but didn’t feel anything besides the paint. Her blush marks didn’t feel quite as round as they should’ve been but that could just be age and not a lot of care wearing down. She headed to the bathroom to check in the mirrors. Not only were the spots of red less protruded, but curiously they had gotten larger and fuzzier. Strange. ‘Probably just age’ she told herself as she headed back to her box. It was likely just her being silly and forgetting how she was supposed to look after so long but she couldn’t help but wonder if it was something else.


End file.
